This is my 50th post on this blog and I thank all of you readers for the consistent encouragement which keeps the blog going!
This is the story of yet another Nayanar, by name Tirunaalaippovar, who is more popularly known as Nandanar.
On the banks of the river Kollidam, in Tamilnadu, there was this fertile village of Adhanur. In this fertile village was born the devout Shiva Bhakta, Nandanar.
Nandanar belonged to the community of Paraiayar, which literally meant makers of the percussion instrument “Parai”. This instrument was made with wood with a covering made of animal skin and the people who made it were called Parayars, which later on became synonymous with the word ‘pariah’, by the British.
Namdanar was a great devotee of the Lord Shiva and had the name of the lord in his lips and heart always.
Once, Nandanar happened to go to the temple of Thirupunkoor to see the Lord. The Lord was hidden by the huge statue of Nandi in front. Nandanar prayed with all sincerity and yearned to have one darshan of the Lord and lo and behold! The stone Nandi moved a bit to let Nandanar have a glimpse at his beloved Lord. The Nandi, who so moved, till this day remains in the same posture!!
Though he visited many Shiva temples, Nandanar longed to visit the temple of Lord Shiva at Chidambaram. Every day, he thought of going to Chidambaram but considered himself unworthy and so did not visit the holy city . At the end of each day, he would tell his friends in Tamil “Naalai poven”, which meant ‘I will go tomorrow’. Since this became a regular feature, Nandanar came to be known as ‘Tirunaalai Povar’ and the villagers stopped believing that he would go to Chidambaram at all.
Nandanar also worked for a landlord as a farm labourer. Nandanar’s landlord was very strict in dealing with his employees. So, when Nandanar finally decided to visit the great temple of Shiva at Chidambaram and reluctantly asked permission for a day off, the landlord sarcastically told him that he could go the moment he had finished ploughing the fields. Although it may sound easy, the fields were not just one or two acres, but hundreds of acres in size and ploughing them single-handedly would take Nandanar the whole of the season. A heartbroken Nandanar could do nothing except pray in desperation to the Lord.
The next day, Nandanar went out to the fields to do the arduous task assigned to him. His determination to visit Chidambaram was such. As he reached the fields, he was amazed by the sight! The whole of the fields were ploughed and thoroughly ready for sowing seeds. The Landlord, who also happened to come there was shocked and surprised and realised that this Nandanar was not a simple devotee of Shiva. Seeing the fields and Nandanar, the landlord, more in fear and awe told Nandanar to go to Chidambaram immediately. An equally surprised Nandanar was extremely pleased and went to Chidambaram finally.
As he reached the city, he saw the smoke of the fire rituals being done in every home. And also came floating in the air the strains of the four Vedas. These were happening in every street of the town that Nandanar felt that he should not even go into the town as he was unworthy of the same. So, he went around the town innumerable times for three days and feeling very depressed with himself sank into deep slumber outside the town. He had a wonderful dream. The Lord was ordering him to go to a particular place and walk through what seemed like fire. The Lord wanted to show the world that Nandanar was pure gold which comes out more shining when put through fire.
At the same time the temple priests had also a dream in which the Lord ordered them to create a sacrificial fire at a particular place outside the town. That was the place where Nandanar was. The puzzled priests went to the place and created a sacrificial fire and Nandanar understood that this was the fire the Lord directed him to walk through. He came in his tattered dirty clothes, totally dishevelled and taking the name of the Lord in his lips closed his eyes and walked through the fire. A very surprising thing happened. As he came out, he was a glowing figure with the sacred ash smeared on his body and he appeared like a divine being, with a divine aura glowing around him.
On witnessing this miraculous happening, the priests took Nandanar on their shoulders and took him inside the temple. On nearing the sanctum sanctorum, Nandanar got down paying obeisance to the Lord and as he went into the garba griha (sanctum sanctorum), he just vanished into thin air. He had merged with the Lord and the people were left astounded! Such was the devotion of Nandanar!
Om Namah Shivaya!!
Ram Mohan Narasimhan
Nice story. An example of achieving your objective if you do anything with a sense of purpose and focus.
K.R.Vidhyaa
Thank you
Usha
Superb. More stories from periya puranam pls.
K.R.Vidhyaa
Sure, I want to give stories of Alwars also.
Usha
Read this story again. Totally moved.
Sudharsan
Thank You very much madam.
Yo are enriching the Next Gen with our ever living truths
K.R.Vidhyaa
Thank you very much.
pravina
Hi sister,, really appreciate the effort on telling out the stories of our saints in a easy understandable and interesting manner.. I have been googling for few weeks for these stories to present as bed time stories for my kids.. all i found was complicated version.. till today i saw ur writing. its such a blessing..thanks a lot
K.R.Vidhyaa
Thanks Pravina. That is the sole purpose of my blog. Kids should listen to meaningful bedtime stories!!. Keep reading!!
P.R.Amarnath.
Respected sister, You have been doing a meaningful service by documenting stories related to our rich puranas and our ancient saints ,who lived few centuries back.These real life stories of great saints explain in detail so many things,useful in our day to day life. How to worship god?What is the nature of Ishwara? In short, all the vedic principles & philosophies could be well understood ,from the life of these great Mahatmas.
hatsoff to your efforts.Our children should be told all these stories by grandparents-But, Are grandparents find a place in families?
K.R.Vidhyaa
Thank you for your compliments Sir. Let us hope that the joint family system returns and storytelling by grandparents also returns!
Ranjana (Hari mama's daughter)
Hello akka, How are you? Glad to see your page. Very useful. I was looking for nandanar story and crossed your page.
krvidhyaa
Thank you. Keep reading.Have sent you mail.
Padmanabhan Ananth
Excellent recounting of a story that I’ve heard my mother explain a thousand times. I’ve also see the old movie on Nandanar and its beautiful songs. Only sad aspect is that, from then to now, religion, caste, colour, creed and other such extraneous considerations are continuing to grip our country and to keep it divided. From the time of Nandanar we have all read hundreds of tales that teach us not to give considerations for caste etc. I hope one day all this change.
krvidhyaa
What you say is true…. Let us hope for a change…
Ramkumar
Hi, is Nandhanar real character or fiction?
krvidhyaa
Yes, he should have been a real character as his life story has been mentioned by Sundarar (8th century), Nambiyandar Nambi (contemporary of Raja Raja Chola) and Periya Puranam (12th Century) and all the 63 Nayanmars are believed to have lived and he was one of them.
Chandrasekar R
the temple where the nandi moved is near “Vaitheeswaran Kovil” in tamil nadu. The name of the temple is “Siva Loga Naadha Swamy” temple.
Sakya
Parai- the very origin of Speech or Language, which was pioneered by Paraiyar’s.
Parai- Means to speak (communicate) or tell, or say (in Tamil Pesu, sol). The very first thing that comes out of a baby’s mouth, utterance, that is Parai?…which later develops into communication of various kinds was pioneered by this people who are called Paraiyars. So, Paraiyars means the masters of speaking, writing and communication, various types and modes of communication originates from Parai.
The Tamil Language and origin goes back to ancient times, Paraiyar’s introduced speaking, conveying messages, writing poems, excelled in literatures of all kinds to Tamil Nadu and to India.
Paraiyar’s are called the “Adhi People”, the earliest humans and setllers of land of India, the origin of Tamil people begins with Paraiyar’s over the Kurinji Land (Mountains and Forests), they can also be called Kurinji people who for the first time cleared lands in the mountains, forests and at the bases of mountains in ancient time for cultivation, thus the pioneers of Agriculture (you can find this information in Bharathiya’rs [Aaril Oru Pangu by Subramanya Bharathiyar]
Paraiyar’s were also the spokespersons of Kings and Dynasties of the ancient time up to Cholas period, there were many Paraiyar’s Kings within the Cholas Kingdom and in other Tamil dynasties over thousands of years before 1300BC way up to 5000 or 10000 years or beyond.
The language Tamil, oldest and most ancient among all world’s language was introduced to this world by none other than “Iraivan Siva” (God of all Gods) Siva, Sivas real name: Siva Parayar or Siva Sambavar.
Paraiyars were also the original Priests in all the temples in Tamil Nadu, and in ancient times. They are pioneers of preaching, medicine and literature.
His Paraiyar descendants of Tamil country were too many to quote to who wrote the Sangam literature and contributed to Tamil Literacy, to name a few is Thiruvalluvar who wrote Thirukural was Paraiyar, his sister the greatest woman poet of India Avaiyaar was a Paraiyar woman poet. The contributions and achievements and greatness of Paraiyar’s can span into a long long list. But, this little introduction will clear most people’s doubt or help understand better about Paraiyars.
I hope this comment will help the visitors and readers to learn more and do their own due diligence to read more about Paraiyar’s great history.
Prabhakar
Very good, nice and simple way of telling story. Thanks for sharing. Keep continuing!
krvidhyaa
Thank you Prabhakar ji!
Nagarajan V
Well explained and narrated. May you be blessed with many more such collection be brought out for the modern children. ram ram.
krvidhyaa
Thank you Nagarajan ji!!